Sunday, March 9, 2014

Jeremy Spencer “Coventry Blue”

(jeremyspencer.com) I am not down with pretentious “fans” who
insist on not liking the most popular stuff, beyond any logic or audio
evidence. If you love Nirvana, yet swear “Bleach” is better than “Nevermind,” then
you don’t love Nirvana or/and you are lying. There’s a thousand examples of
this, but the one that I am actually most sympathetic with is the absurd
argument that “Rumours” pales next to the Fleetwood Mac earlier stuff driven by
Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer’s blues sensibilities. Sure, it’s hard to rank anything
over “Rumours,” but I’ll be damned if I don’t kinda prefer to hear the odd play
between the blues enthusiasts and the more ambitious elements of the band.
While the once mysterious Green returned to the scene a few years back, Spencer
remained a mystery man for decades before sticking his no-longer-long-haired
head out of his turtle shell in the mid-00’s with some straight up blues, and
he followed it up a couple of years back with an album that added some
intimacy, folk, Americana, coffeehouse, and spiritualism into the slide guitar
mix. The new album continues with more mellow, grooving, beautiful, passionate
takes on American roots music. I love the fragile, yet strong and dedicated,
quality of Spencer’s mature voice. And he can still play! And dollars to
donuts, I bet this is better than the next Fleetwood Mac record!